“The truth of the matter is....I don’t always ‘want’ to abide in Jesus.”

What a candid and truthful statement to make, and one I have heard spoken by sincere ‘believers’ on more than one occasion. Truth be told, I’ve felt that myself in years past.

But before I would allow a pious and ‘humble’ spirit to settle in for being so ‘raw and transparent’ ...as others applaud our ‘being real’ with them...can we take a moment to analyze what we are saying when we confess to such a gut honest admission?

When a person says they just don’t ‘want’...to abide in Jesus...’all the time’, what are they really suggesting?

And please keep in mind that even when we are abiding in Him, that does not mean we are exempt from being ‘tempted’ by the tempter who ‘goes about like a roaring lion seeking to devour’ (1 Pet. 5:8). Why do you think we are admonished to ‘resist him’ and ‘give him no place’? (James 4:7; Eph. 4:27)

Let’s look at this from a different perspective. If you were standing at a church altar and about to recite your wedding vows to your soon-to-be partner, and they spoke up for all to hear and said: “Honey...I really love you ...but I’m going to be honest here- I’m not going to want to always be faithful to you and will probably cheat on you from time to time; but I do love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you!”; ...are you not going to want to hit the ‘pause button’ here before proceeding on with those vows? I would think/hope so.

Why would this be any different when we admit to not wanting to be faithful to Jesus and abide in Him...all of the time?

Is it possible that we are admitting that there might be something else we are ‘loving more’ than God? Did Jesus not say that ‘IF we loved Him, we’d do what He says?” (John 14:15)

Now I realize some may immediately want to recoil at this suggestion and want to implode under a mountain of condemnation; but please know I am not here to condemn anyone. In fact, God did not send Jesus into the world to ‘condemn’ us either; on the contrary He came to deliver and save us. (John 3:17)

I am also not suggesting when using the marriage vows example...that during the course of your marriage you won’t be ‘tempted’ to stray. You most likely will be tempted and probably more than once. But I think we all understand the seriousness and somberness of pledging our fidelity to one another in marriage. Who marries a person that tells them upfront they want to be involved with other people?

When a person truly ‘comes to Jesus’, it’s supposed to be with their whole heart as they surrender their affections and will to Him as they submit to His Lordship. Why call Him ‘Lord’ if we are not going to do what He says?” (Luke 6:46; Matt. 7:21). And God makes no secret in telling us that we will be tested by Him to see how serious we are in making this commitment to Him (Deut. 8:2; 1 Thess. 2:4).

I don’t think we fully grasp how serious God is about this ‘being faithful’. James called out those who were doubled-minded and seemingly had one foot in the kingdom while their heart remained in the ‘world’ and called them ‘adulterers’ (James 4:4)

Was this not the underlying betrayal of God’s people throughout their history as various prophets pointed out:

“For the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord” (Hosea 1:2)

“I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols (anything we love more than God) (Ezek. 6:9)

“Today if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion...I was angry with that generation as they always go astray in their heart” (Heb. 3:8-10)

And if you take your time and read through Romans 7:1-12, it becomes clear that Paul is using an illustration from the law and marriage, and makes the case that when we claim to be ‘married to Christ’ while at the same time our ‘old man’ is alive and well...we are no different than a woman who joins herself to another man while her first husband is still alive. “And she shall be called an adulteress”(3) And we ‘know that no adulterer has any inheritance in the kingdom of God’ (1 Cor 6:9; Gal. 5:21;Eph. 5:5)

Oh...and before you want to bring up Paul’s mentioning the struggles we all have faced, how “I want to do good but evil is always present” (Rom. 7:15-23), may I remind you once again: Paul was simply identifying the problem we all deal with when it comes to in ‘wanting to do good’ (keep God’s commandments)...but this ‘wretched man and body of death’ (24) seems to get in the way. He doesn’t leave us hanging there and falsely concluding that he continued to battle sin in his life. He actually spells out the solution in chapter 8, springboarding from the answer that Jesus Christ our Lord delivers us from that wretched man (7:25). Chapter 8 goes on to explain how it is the Spirit of God who leads us to ‘put to death’ this old nature so that we can indeed...go and sin no more as we are conformed to the image of Christ.

If you have continued to stumble, fall, and fail God in keeping the commandments (to sin)... no doubt you are frustrated and discouraged and feel quite defeated. You may even be irritated to hear me keep beating this same old drum. But I’m here to tell you, in Jesus’ Name...you can be free and overcome all sin. Your continued failing is simply evidence that you’ve been trying to do it on your own and with your own strength. There is a better way. I promise.